Caribbean Paradise in Mexico

beach front workouts

That is question I get all of the time as the resident health nut of our dear Costa Maya. “I heard there was a gym. Do you know where it is?”. Mahahual has had several incarnations of gyms of sorts. All taking on different forms and experiencing varying lifespans. One giving birth to another. The cycle of life and death.

The answer to the question is the only gym in Mahahual at the current moment, a reincarnation of our old fairly stable gym, rests in the beachfront hotel Blue Kay. When the old gym closed down over contract issues between the owner of the gym and the owner of the building it was in, Blue Kay swept in and bought most of the old equipment and put it in an airy, wooden space above the front desk at the hotel.

The conspicuous building stands alone at the entrance so you can’t miss it. There is a roof, a floor, the equipment, and not much else. The equipment is composed of dated machines, reminiscent of 80’s spandex and headband workouts, and some free weights. There is no cardio equipment or stretching/warm up space, mostly due to the constraints of the overload of machines compared to available floor space, so you’ll have to do your cardio at the beach. It isn’t glamorous but it does have what you need to get in a basic workout, especially considering that there is no alternative at the moment.

I am being somewhat hard on it, as a lifelong fitness rat accustomed to the latest and greatest, but the gym at Blue Kay can really be a cool experience, especially from a traveler’s viewpoint. Working out basically outdoors with a nice sea breeze and mangrove view can be a welcome novelty to people living the city life abroad, especially if that city happens to be sitting at sub-zero temperatures at the time. At at only $35 pesos (about $1.75 USD) for the day, it is worth it.

The gym could use the touch of an experienced gym goer to clear out some of the redundant machines and really utilize the space properly. Modernizing the available equipment would really turn it into a gym that is optimized and make the novelty of the beach-front work out a highlight of your trip. But it is what we have for now and it works well enough.

If you are in town and looking for a pump then head over to Blue Kay and see what you’ve got. You can get in a nice sweat. I’ll be the tall guy looking for enough space to stretch…